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Note: Sparta News Plaindealer - June 23, 1999 Obituary
Clifford D. Madison, Former Spartan
Clifford D. Madison, 71, Detroit, MI, formerly of Sparta, died Friday,
June 11, at the Arnold Nursing Home in Detroit, MI.
Mr. Madison was born March 10, 1928, in Sparta, the son of Kenneth and
Pauline Madison. He married Lois Washington.
Survivors include his wife, Lois Madison; his children Rosalind McClain
of Georgia, Clifford Madison, Jr., living in California, and Steward,
Dean and Marcus, all living in Detroit, MI; four sisters, Faye Milton of
Indianapolis, IN, Mrs. Carrie St. James of Sparta, IL, Mrs. Ruby
Cushinberry of Chicago, IL and Myrtle Penny of Dixon; once aunt Rose
Lipscomb of Detroit; his "brother cousin" Theodore and his wife Wylene
Madison; seven grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Preceding him in death were his parents; one daughter, Robyn; and three
brothers, Kenneth, William and Norman.
Mr. Madison left Sparta at an early age and joined the U.S. Coast Guard.
After leaving the service he settled in Detroit, MI.
Memorial services were held in Detroit, MI, and graveside services were
held at Caledonia Cemetery in Sparta on Tuesday, June 15, 1999.
Obituary notes by Ted Madison
Cliff, as he was called by most friends and family, was flamboyant, a beg
spender and world wide traveler both before and after retirement. He has
been in ill health for several years but with the help of his wife and
friends, had been able to maintain himself at his home on Pasadena in
Detroit, MI until the early part of this year. At the time, his wife,
who had been dutiful all the years of their marriage felt he was best
served by a convalescent placement then later hospice.
After a short celebration in Detroit, his body was shipped to Sparta, IL
where the family there, at his widow's insistence, held an 11 am grave
side service on Tuesday June 15, 1999.
Family members in attendance at the Detroit celebration included: his
sister, Mrs. Myrtle Madison Penny and her daughter Mrs. Winona Penny
Brown, Mrs. Rose Killough Lipscomb and her son Albert, and Wylene and Ted
Madison.
Clifford's sisters, however, have noted and I too feel that Clifford was
much too an illustrious member of our family to slide so quietly into
that good night. So this is my way of saying good-bye to my dearly
beloved cousin. I wish I had thought about writing it to read to him
before his passing as I had done with my sister. I did not, so now I can
be even more description without fear of contradiction or reprisal.
Cliff has an enormous mind for numbers including time, dates and places.
I never attempted to match wits with him when it came to historical
facts. In fact it was seldom that I chose to match wits with him at
all. Mostly I listened to him, always in awe of two things that made us
most similar in character and personality. A trigger quick temper and an
enormous love of family and friends. We felt and thought not just as
brothers, but as fraternal twins. My wife has told me that we are really
victims of a mutual admiration society. I admired him and wished I was
as bright as he and conversely he admired me. He had an ability I
coveted, a razor sharp wit with street smarts. He sought my wisdom, well
honed by formal education. In each of our cases we were the epitome of
"The Road Not Taken: as spoken to by Robert Frost. . .
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence.
Two roads divergent in a wood and
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference"
I met my cousin, whom I later called "brother" for the first time in or
around 1958. He would have been able to tell me the month, day and
year. We met in a small neighborhood bar called the "Blue Bird Inn".
What are the odds of two people, one from Kansas, the other from Illinois
meeting in Detroit, MI for the first time and discovering that they are
first cousins? Cliff would have been able to give you the odds.
I had met Cliff's dad Uncle Ken, for the first and only time in 1946 at
my dad's, his Uncle George's funeral. Uncle Ken promised that within the
next year he would send for me to come meet his two boys, Norman and
Clifford. Unfortunately that meeting was destined never to occur until
the chance meeting at the :Blue Bird Inn:. Uncle Ken died in a min
accident following the year of my dad's funeral.
Our meeting was even stranger still when you consider that during part of
my tour of army years, 1951-1952 I was stationed in Fort Custer, MI and
came to Detroit many weekends to visit my sister Mae and my mother,
Clifford's aunt Willa. We did not meet then but years later, after my
return to Michigan and after my tour of duty and undergrad work in both
Wichita and Kansas Universities. This meeting and the surprise birthday
party Coiff gave his mother, my Aunt Pauline on a Sunday June 21, 1982
constitutes two of the highlights for me and I am sure the family members
individually and collectively have many of their own. I implore all that
read this to think of them as we retain Clifford in our hearts. Rest in
peace dear (brother, cousin, uncle-grandfather) Clifford. Your life was
full and fruitful and ours was made more interesting by your presence and
your charm.
Surviving family member and their spouses acknowledge and wish to thank
all family and friends for any and all contributions to their brother's
final days of care.
The family in Sparta especially wishes to publicly thank the McDaniel
funeral Home for their service.
The surviving sisters ranked her in order of their birth and in
relationship to my own sisters:
Faye Madison Milton - Pauline Madison Jones Ruby Madison Cushinberry - Willa Mae Madison Green (dec.) Carrie Madison St. James - Emma Louise Madison Jackson (dec.) Myrtle Madison Penny - Georgiann Madison Todd (dec.)
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